Passengers amazed as python clings to Qantas plane during flight

SYDNEY (AFP) - It was not quite a "Snakes on a Plane" scenario, but passengers on a Qantas jet watched in amazement as a three-metre python clung to the outside of their aircraft during a flight.

The Australian carrier said the flight from the Queensland city of Cairns to Port Moresby, capital of the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, took off early Thursday morning with the unintended passenger tucked into its wing.

"The snake was seen by passengers once (the plane) reached cruising altitude," a Qantas spokesman told AFP.

"It was still on the aircraft when it arrived in Port Moresby but it had died by that stage."

A 3m python clung to the outside of a Qantas aircraft during a flight. -- PHOTO : INTERNET